Each summer Tabatha connects us kidlit poets by coordinating a poem swap. My first poem swap was with Kat Apel, all across the globe in Australia. Believe it or not, we have met face to face. She is a tall, sunshiny gal. I finally got around to sending her a poem yesterday, and she has shared it with the world today. Check it out here.
Kat loves nature and often writes about it. She has watched our wood duck nesting box project over social media. She sent me this poem a few weeks ago. She captured the photo from my video, so cute with two ducklings peeking out. The poem is a lai form (which I looked up here.)
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
We saw from the camera in the box that the babies were restless, chirping and jumping over and under mother hen.
We set up our stations distancing ourselves from the nest box and from each other and waited.
Silent meditation. No sound except the birdsong. Gnats were circling my face. I had to touch my face. I coughed. I couldn’t sit still.
Mama wood duck peeked her head out of the hole. Was she ready to jump? An hour passed by.
We thought maybe our presence was the problem. We moved up to the deck, and occupied ourselves with crossword puzzles, Kindle books, and hot tea and muffins. Another hour.
Sunday morning boaters passed. Our neighbor began pressure washing. I worried that there was too much activity for her to feel safe to call her ducklings.
She hopped out, and like a speed boat, thrashed through the water zigzagging back and forth. Was she warding off predators? Another hour.
“I saw a jump!” Minga said in a loud whisper. And sure enough, little fuzzy black blobs were falling from the house. I clicked my camera shutter quickly. In less than two minutes, clusters of wood duck babies followed after their mamma and were gone into the cypress knees of the opposite bank.
Three hours of watching for three seconds of Joy! Best Sunday service ever.
Blur on the left is wood duck jumping.First group of jumpers equals 7. Second bunch 5 for an even dozen.
Thank you to Two Writing Teachers for creating an amazing community of writers and a safe, welcoming space to write and share.
I started my post this morning and then some exciting life things happened, so here I am rewriting.
I took a morning walk as usual and collected some beauty from my neighbor’s yard.
I got a text from Paulette. Paulette has three wood duck houses, and she had exciting news.
When I got back home, I checked our Ring doorbell camera. We have a wood duck house with a camera mounted on the roof, so we can watch the goings-on inside the house. For 30 days, it’s been quite boring. She sits and sits and sits. But this morning I opened the app, and this is what I saw!
The photo is blurry, but you can see some black blobs. Those are baby chicks! I was so excited! Wood ducks hatch all in one day and then jump from the box the next day. I hope to be posting tomorrow about a successful Jump Day.
With all this new life happening, I decided I needed to get my butterfly garden in order. I went to Lowe’s and got some plants, two milkweed plants. Well, look at this little baby crawling on one of my plants!
He is safely inside our back porch in a butterfly net. In Louisiana, we call this lagniappe, a little something extra.
And here’s a picture of my butterfly garden, weeded and mulched. Y’all, I’m exhausted!
Margaret Simon lives on the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, Louisiana. She teaches gifted elementary students, writes poetry and children's books. Welcome to a space of peace, poetry, and personal reflection. Walk in kindness.
Reflections on the Teche 